When scooter news breaks, we put it under a tarp in the garage.
Balloon Artist Jeremy Telford makes a balloon Vespa. Yes, you just spent two minutes and 36 seconds watching a balloon artist, and you liked it. Do you feel dirty?
Here’s the backstory from Glen G. on Modern Buddy. Thanks for sharing, Glen!
Update: here’s Jeremy’s site. Wow.
Two exciting weeks of football are behind us, and the group stage of the World Cup is almost over. How are the 18 contenders in our 2SB World Cup Bracket doing?
France and Italy’s early exits really hurt just about everyone. In fact, with all the upsets so far, not one of the million-or-so entrants in ESPN’s Bracket Predictor has full points. We had a lot of Serbia fans that are dissapointed, too. Right now, first place is a three-way-tie with Jason Rossi, Matt Langenberg, and my 8-month-old son Pudge in a three-way tie for first. Of those three, only Langenberg has all four predicted Semifinalists left in the tournament, so he’s looking very good right now.
But even in the lower ranks, there’s hope. Three of the bottom six have all four semifinalist choices still active. Tomorrow is the last day of group play, and Brazil and Portugal are virtually locked in unless Ivory Coast beats Dear Leader by 8, but Spain could tank and pull an Italy tomorrow, and shake everything up again. We’ll see.
In any case, we’re certainly proud of the U.S.A.’s performance so far, and can’t wait for the Ghana match on Saturday. Ghana beat us 2-1 in group play in 2006, and has cooler jerseys than us, can we pull it off this time? What do our bracket-makers think?
I hope they prove us all wrong!
We missed this year’s Chicago Mods vs. Rockers rally because we were at PVSC but Jordan Cinco sent some great photos (below). Looks like an even better scooter showing than usual, but that’s no surprise, it’s always a top event and it gets bigger and better every year.
Continue reading “Mods vs. Rockers 2010 (Gallery)”
49ccScoot.com is a newish site focused on GY6 and Minarelli engine tuning and maintenance, with forums, videos, and more. If you’re looking for tips to hop up or fix your Chinese bike, this looks like a good place to visit to get an honest, reasonable answer without the snooty attitude you get from sites like, um, say, 2strokebuzz.
Via Jason Davis on Modern Buddy
To tell you the truth, I’ve become a bit disillusioned with rallies. I’ve only been hitting a couple a year, and they’re always pretty great, but modern-scooter city rallies just aren’t the same as the drunken rural camping rallies that got me hooked on scootering. I’d been finding excuses to skip Pittsburgh Vintage Scooter Club’s Band Camp rally in eastern Ohio for ten years, but after a great trip to Niagara last month, I finally decided it was time to see what I was missing.
Continue reading “PVSC Band Camp 2010 (+ gallery)”
Why not just rent out an elementary school gym and sell recalled toys with lead paint? “OK, kids, whatever you do, DON’T PLAY WITH THESE!” Bastards.
Thanks for the link, POCphil, who’s currently rebooting the American Motor Scooter Association, to try to prevent stuff like this.
If you speak Russian and dig guys wearing Speedos, you’ll love this
Honda PCX video. It’s sort of the “Vespa Gringo” of Russian-Thai-scooter videos, so you know it was Rye that found it for us.
Admit it, you watched *way* longer than you should have, didn’t you. I wanna hang out with those guys.
The first batch of 4-stroke Genuine Stellas is being held up by the EPA to validate the production model’s compliance with earlier testing (which, obviously, was done on prototypes). In typical transparent and honest fashion, Genuine explains it all clearly, and apologizes for the delay, here. I know the delay must be frustrating for would-be four-stroke Stella riders, but whining about it on the internet isn’t going to get you a bike any faster, and just think, further government confirmation about how green your bike is will just give you hippy 2-stroke killers more to be smug about, amirite?
I’ve just heard that John Gerber has passed away. As an active participant in the U.S. scooter scene since “the old days,” John was the preeminent historian of American scootering history, collecting his own memories, first-person accounts, and laboriously-researched stories for American Scooterist. He was frankly the heart and soul of the Vespa Club of America. Aside from that, I have no details at all, but I’ll share the information when I get it, and a proper tribute when I’m less speechless.
Patrick confirms (with the photo above) that the two-tone Vespa S ie models (called “College” in Europe) are now available in the U.S. (Specifically at Motoworks Chicago. Or at least they were a week ago when he emailed us. The new colors (red/white and blue/white) are listed on VespaUSA’s site in in both “S” displacements. Also, a new LXV is available in a color Patrick called “Tobacco,” but Vespa lists it as “Espresso” (The seat leather may be called “Tobacco?”) Anyway, good to see some sharp new colors from Vespa, actually available in the U.S. roughly the same time as Europe.
Yes, that’s dozens of low-speed collisions from Chinese security cameras. Car-on-car. Car-on-scooter. Scooter-on-scooter. Scooter-on bicycyle. All of the above-on-pedestrian, and my favorite, Tuk-tuk-in-reverse-on-multiple-pedestrians.
It’s very tragic, yet a little bit funny (just like Gome) At least everyone seems to be moving pretty slowly and no one is hurt, at least not visibly gored. Try not to picture any of those collisions on American streets with SUVs going twice as fast.
OMG we can’t keep up. Apparently ModChicago is back THIS WEEKEND with Our Way of Thinking: A Simple Headphone Mind and a regular night The Merge at Late Bar (Fridays) starting June 18. I’ll never figure out Mod politics so I probably just pissed off someone there, maybe they’re not related. Facebook is confusing, so I’m not even going to link to it. Karrie will straighten us out. Karrie, please straighten us out.
Jordan reminds us Ton Up Chicago’s Mods and Rockers Street Clash is next weekend (Friday June 18-Saturday June 19 2010). This year it looks like they’re moving it from Delilahs to the new(ish) Bottom Lounge on Lake Street. As great as Delilah’s is, it’s been way too crowded in years past I’ve gone (was it at Bottom Lounge last year?) so the new venue (and the less busy street/area) should be a big improvement. Not that an improvement was needed, the event, venue, and artwork have always been top-notch. This year promises an even fuller two days of events, including Quadrophenia at the Music Box, bands (Irving Parkas!), rides, and the centerpiece bike show. Sadly, I’ll miss it again this year, but Jordan will surely give us a report.
Update: We hear the Discovery Channel is shooting the whole thing, so you’ll definitely want to shine up and show off!
If you’re interested in scooter racing at all, read on! Simply put, there’s a big schload of scooter racing going on this summer, and that is awesome.
Our 2SB Rally Calendar should now be up to date with all events for the following organizations/leagues:
Are we missing anyone? (Probably!) See any errors? (blame Google Calendar!) In either case, please let us know!
You’ll see we’ve added a new series of events, following the success of Twist and Gone in May, the North American Scooter Racing Association is hosting a full season of drag races in Nashville, IN, sponsored by Scooterworks.
One last bad news/good news bit: MWSR’s organizer Seth tells us that the race this weekend at G&J Kartway in Camden, OH has been postponed, but the good news is the track will be open to scooters for only $10.
Kymco racer photo above is courtesy of Alan Spears, MSILSF
Update: ESPN’s entry deadline is a bit unclear, but it could be sometime today (Thursday), so ENTER NOW!
We sort of dropped the (Official Adidas Jabulani) World Cup ball this year, since we’ve been so hyped up on the Blackhawks, (see below).
But World Cup season is always a big deal here on 2strokebuzz. If you want to get mixed up in our Quadrennial gentleman’s wager, just sign up for ESPN Soccernet’s World Cup Bracket Predictor then make your picks and join the 2strokebuzz.com group Whoever has the most points at the end of the tournament wins… something. Something good.
Continue reading “2SB World Cup Contest”